Chapter 7 (PA)
May 16th, 2015. I am awesome. How do I know that, you asked? I orchestrated the deaths of three members of the Octessence, my spell infected the other weaker members of them and made them look like they had the powers of the slain Exemplars. If that wasn't enough evidence, then the power absorbed from Ikonn, that I applied to my speed, stamina, and regeneration had grown my abilities to such a point that I could run at nearly 6000 miles per hour, heal instantly, and I could lift 900 tons! I think the results spoke for themselves. This concludes my sermon on my awesomeness. Now gimme your money. Just kidding, I don't need your money. I was now worth around 15Bn dollars, due to looting Klaue's coffers and his minions bank accounts and that, coupled with what I had stolen from HYDRA, had made me a very wealthy man. That didn't even account for other stashes of valuables that I needed to empty out. But all of that was unimportant. I had the difficult task of deciding how to eliminate my next target, Samantha McGee. I could easily kill her, but the energy inside her might cause an extinction level event. I was essentially left with the option of absorbing her power and applying it to my own magical power, but that would paint a colossal target on my back and make my family nervous. Nervousness for immortal super-powerful beings was never a good thing, and they would not like being surpassed by me in power... I was being an idiot! I had already surpassed most of them and they hadn't said a thing! I really could be insecure some times. With that in mind, I teleported behind her and trapped her in a bear hug, and then teleported us to a desert. When I arrived, I pulled on the power contained within her and began rapidly absorbing it. I spent minutes absorbing her power, which seemed to be as limitless as the sun itself and I wasn't sure how much of it I could even hold. Eventually, after growing my power a shocking amount, the flow stopped and she managed to get free from my hold, and tried attacking me. I blasted her body into a dust and left its remains, if it could even be called that, to be forever concealed by the desert. As the sun rose into the sky, I teleported away, while contemplating how to do the impossible. I arrived near the current hide-out of one Cain Marko... the Juggernaut. I had to defeat him. The problem was that it was near impossible to do so. I had to find a way to do the impossible, while surviving uninjured enough to still be able to prepare dinner for Natasha later and function during our date. I easily snuck into his hide-out, got right up behind him, and then teleported us both away, to the planet Mars. "You got balls, Kid. What do ya want?" Cain asked. "To eliminate the threat you pose to the world. It's nothing personal, you have just caused a lot of damage and trouble." I replied, and he laughed. "I'm gonna pretend you're laughing due to hystical fear." I added, causing him to laugh even harder. I super-sped to him, grabbed ahold of his neck, and began rapidly draining his speed. "Surrender you are no match, lowly villain!" He laughed harder, still unaware of my draining of his speed. His base speed was completely gone. "You feel that lightheadedness? That's your brain being deprived of oxygen!" I bluffed, beginning to drain his strength, durability, healing factor, and absorbing the energy from the force-field around body. Meanwhile, he just looked amused. I was bleeding him dry, but he was still standing! "How are you still standing?" "Because yer doin nothin to me, kid." Cain said arrogantly. I had drained so much of his strength from him that mine had more than trippled! "Not even slight trouble breathing?" I asked. "Nothin," He replied. "You're gonna tell everybody and their gonna laugh at me aren't they?" I asked, with false insecurity. "Yup!" He replied. I had more than quadrupled my base strength by now. "I could choose to flee and leave you here instead... So, how about I buy your silence with a trip home? If you ever blab, I'll trap you here." I offered, a fake offer, but Cain responded by throwing me through a boulder and running at me. Very slowly. I used my super-speed to intercept and used my mutation to absorb the kinetic energy from his momentum and began to rapidly absorb more from him. I stopped him for several seconds, before he suddenly got a massive strength boost and knocked me backwards. Again, I absorbed even more of his strength, durability, healing factor, and force-field, doubling my current levels. I continued absorbing his strength, but he was gaining it faster than I could absorb it. Not even Thor and the Hulk had such strength! We struggled for what seemed like hours, but neither made any real progress. I never thought that I would wield, let alone, encounter such levels of strength and durability. "Give up, kid!" Cain said, with a sneer. I responded by growing to a similar height, with one thought in my mind, that I was going to regret this. I used my super-speed to flank him and put him in a full nelson, and then pulled on his powers as hard as I could. I felt his seemingly limitless power enter me and become mine... My previous physical capabilities became less than nothing compared to the massive gain that I just experienced. I was rapidly diverting energy to upgrade my speed to insane levels. My durability, healing factor, and strength benefited from immense gains, I estimated that I could move millions of tons, was almost invulnerable and could heal in seconds. Did I forget to mention that I was still absorbing power from him? Well, I was, and my power was still soaring to new heights. The more I drained, the more I took, eventually, an hour later, the flow stopped, and I dropped Cain onto the ground as he struggled to breathe. I blasted him in the back with a bolt of power. I didn't get nearly as much power as I expected, but that was okay, because I had enough. I did sense a power within his body, and telekinetically ripped it out of him. I was amazed to find a gem inside, it wasn't an infinity gem, but it could enhance my powers to similar heights, or I could just use it's link to Cyttorak to bleed that bastard dry. I could sense that if my flesh touched the gem then I would become a slave to Cyttorak, so I conjured a gauntlet and telekinetically secured it inside it. I decided to use Cyttorak's power to restore Mars magnetic field and atmosphere to perfect condition first, and then restored the planet itself back to it's prime. Surprisingly, it still had a lot of power, incalcuable levels of it, left. I restored Mars previously extinct native fauna back to life and teleported back to where I killed Samantha McGee. When I arrived, I summoned any other gems of Cyttorak and when they appeared, I modified the gauntlet to include them. Oh this was going to be fun... Over the next hour I turned deserts into forests, purified and created water, cured all diseases, resurrected dead fish, restored cut forests, created absolutely massive amounts of crops and gave them to those who needed them, gave people the means and skills to tend to those crops; so they could continue feeding others, erased nuclear waste, created schools and imparted knowledge to adults to teach them, cured air and marine pollution, erased the worst of chemical and biological weapons from existence, and stripped terrorists of their weapons and then bound them in chains. I did all of this in my personal Black Ops armor, to protect my identity. And the gems still had plenty of power, most drawing directly from the source. I created shields against demons of all types; on a solar system level and made it so that they drained energy from those trying to break them, but only I could drain energy from the shields. My gauntlet still had a lot power left, so I healed any damage to earths magnetic field and atmosphere. I decided to reinforce the barriers around earth to prevent attack and then go install them around every other planet I could that was within teleporting range. Still, the gems had plenty of power. I was beginning to wonder if Cyttorak was truly omnipotent, and after teleporting back to earth to check the time, I decided to do asteroid mining with his powers. I mined every asteroid I could, likely making quintillions of dollars in the process and the gems still had a decent amount of power; even when I extended my island further, and created heavily warded warehouses and vaults to store my loot. At least I was making some progress on draining his powers. I was still getting annoyed though, so I just started destroying Hell Lords, and other demons, and siphoning their power into defenses for their now former dimensions. Lucifer Lightbearer, Beelzeboul, Asmodeus, Thog, and Olivier, were all killed and I gave their dimensions to my very grateful uncle Hades, after fully-warding them; finally exhausting the power in the gems, breaking them and then destroying all remnants of them. I was very pleased to once more sense the deaths of several members of the Octessence. I teleported away, pleased with my days work, and making a note that I had only been active for four hours. When I arrived, I noticed that the Avengers had recently called me, and promptly flashed away my armor and teleported there. "There you are!" Rogers called out, angrily. "You didn't answer the call for the mission!" "Because I was on one, but what was it?" I asked, before noticing the glares directed at me. Rogers sighed. "Show him the footage, the mission is no longer feasible anyway. The target disappeared." Steve said, and Maria played it. I quickly learned that I was the target, but for recruitment or arrest. I really did look awesome in my Black Ops armor, and was proud of my design of it. "He fixed a lot of bad things and he disappeared while we were waiting for you. Anyone who would use such levels of power to help people instead of rule or conquer them was someone I wanted as an Avenger." Rogers said, still angry. I was so awesome that he wanted to recruit me twice! "Uh huh. Zoom in on his gauntlet." I said, in a bored tone. They obeyed. "His powers were derived from the gauntlet on his right arm, they seemed to enable god-like levels of reality manipulation. He was trying to exhaust that energy and it's source. He was seen on Mars, where he fully restored the planet to where it could be habitable, this included recreating the atmosphere, magnetic field, rapidly healing the planet itself and even mass resurrecting it's extinct native fauna." I said, to their shock. "The source was eventually weakened so badly that it's enemies attacked and killed him, and then turned on each other. Only two of these beings survive now." "How do you all of this?" Rhodes asked in interest. A scan of his thoughts revealed a desire to improve intelligence gathering capabilities for America, and he was hoping they could reverse-engineer my surveillance methods. I replied by flashing on my Black Ops armor and removing the helmet. "But, yes, Steve. Since I'm so awesome that you want to recruit me twice, I'll join the Avengers." I said, causing a few Avengers to laugh. "I am sorry that I didn't answer the call, but I was on a mission and had been fighting since before sun rise." "The threats dealt with?" Steve asked, much less angry now. "Yeah. The threat had the power to restore Mars or kill billions at his disposal. Fortunately, I killed him before he learned to utilize it for even more evil. His name was Cain Marko, or the Juggernaut." I said, causing Maria to gasp. "How'd you kill him?" Maria asked in shock. "I cheated." I replied with a smirk. "How did you cheat?" Maria asked, realizing that I was going to drag this out and annoy her in the process. "With an ancient art that inspires fear throughout the universe." "Which is?" Maria asked in exasperation. "I hit him from behind with enough power to destroy an entire nation, at point-blank range, and all directed at his spine." I said, causing Maria to smile briefly before rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I tried physically over-powering him, but he kept getting stronger and I had to cheat to win." "How the hell is that an ancient art feared throughout the universe?" Rhodes asked. "Getting attacked where you can't defend yourself, dude. It's an ancient practice and feared throughout the universe. I know, I asked." I replied, to the amusement of everyone but Rhodes. Rhodes just looked annoyed. I already knew that he didn't like me, but I didn't like him either. I personally felt he was too loyal to his government and entirely too willing to entrust it with powers beyond it's control or comprehension. I was all for patriotism and loyalty, but Iron Man armors under American control would be a nightmare scenario full of mass casualties, arms races, and stealing of the designs. "How many targets do you have left to cross off?" Maria asked. "Three more, but their minor threats and I could kill them in minutes if I wanted too. I might actually do that, I certainly have the time too." I said, to the concern of Rhodes, Rogers, Vision, and Sam Wilson. "Don't worry, they're all evil deities and not human." "Have fun with that, but don't forget about our date tonight." Natasha said, with a smirk. "I wouldn't ever forget someone as lovely as you, Natasha." I replied, with a flirtatious smile and tone. "Damn! Your one lucky girl, Natasha." Maria said, teasingly. "Hope you like over two hundred orgasms in one night, a few of them continuous." And everyone turned to look at me incredulously. "I had very demanding girlfriends and then had sex with Lady Aphrodite. I learned things and then learned as much about sex as I could, including tantric sex." I replied, more than a little embarrassed and blushing a little. "You are my hero," Pietro said, to everyone's amusement. "Thanks," I replied, before noticing his sister was looking at me and blushing. She looked away when she got caught by me, but I found that adorable. "How is that even possible?" Rogers asked in shock. "There are books you can learn from, but you will need women to practice on. I personally recommend a girlfriend, it offers great benefits. You no longer have to worry about previously known diseases, but you should exercise caution for unknown ones." I advised. "I successfully exploited the loophole in the ancient laws today, and eradicated disease. I never thought that I'd have the power to do that, but I feel pretty good about myself for doing it." "I'm sure the world appreciates that, and I'll just make a mental note of that and save it for marriage." Rogers replied. "Alright. Anyway, I'm gonna go kill those pricks and then go home and relax for a few hours." I said, getting alternating shocked looks and nods of understanding. "See you at seven, Natasha," I added, before teleporting away. Over the next five minutes, I absolutely dominated the Uprising Storm, easily destroying Horrorscope, Catastrophobia, and Cryptomnesia. They were all pathetic! I ambushed and easily slaughtered them, I did drain powers from Cryptomnesia and Catastrophobia, which included: technopathy, invisibility and undetectability to others, telekinesis, and became invisible to precognitive beings. I doubted that it would hide me from divine beings, the Olympians knew about these idiots and even had them on a list. I teleported back to my island, I had a date to prepare for. Line break-remove text and replace. It was finally time for my first date with Natalia Alianovna Romanova, or Natasha, as she preferred to be called now, and I was patiently waiting for her to come downstairs. "Nervous?" Tony asked teasingly. "A little." I replied. "Good. Because if you hurt her, we'll hurt you." Tony said, gesturing to the Avengers, not including Thor or the twins, and causing me to laugh harder than I had in years. "Thanks, Tony. I needed something to distract me from my nervousness." I said, having laughed so hard that I almost cried. "But all joking aside, I wouldn't hurt her and have no plans too." "Hurt who?" Natasha asked, making her presence known to us and causing us to turn in her direction. She was perfect. She was wearing a gorgeous, figure hugging black dress that accentuated her best physical features and showed off her toned, sexy legs and arms. Her hair was hanging free down her back, and she was dressed to impress. Summary: Damn! "They jokingly threatened to hurt me, if I hurt you." I replied, snapping myself out of my brief staring session. "We were serious!" Tony exclaimed. "Seriously?!" I questioned incredulously. "You guys would totally get your asses kicked!" I added, before walking over to Natasha and leaving them spluttering in indignation. "You are perfect," I said, taking her hand and kissing it gently. "Thank you," Natasha replied with a touched smile. "We should probably leave before they make even bigger idiots of themselves." "Agreed. I can teleport us both to my palace, if you'd like." I offered, and she nodded. I quickly did so, and we arrived in my palace's entrance hall, moments later. "It's beautiful!" Natasha gushed, admiring my palace. "Thank you," I said, admiring her as she took in her surroundings. "It took me a week to design." I was quite proud of my palace, it was done in the ancient greek style but blended with modern technology and amenities. It had two dozen bedrooms, a game room, den, indoor and outdoor pools, sauna and spa, a state of the art kitchen, wine cellar, and places for my pets to live. It was also probably the most well-defended location on earth, surpassing even New Rome, Camp-Halfblood, and Olympus itself. "You designed this?" Natasha asked in surprise. "Yes, everyone else was surprised too. I designed it so well that it surpassed my ex-girlfriends previous work and then let everyone know." I said, getting a raised eyebrow. "She left me to become goddess of Architecture, and then I designed something better than all of her combined work purely in spite. It was very cathartic and helped me move on." I said, leading her down the hall with my paintings that each took weeks to months to create and chronicled my life. "I ended up creating a temple to myself and didn't even realize what I was doing, until it was rudely pointed out." "The paintings are amazing, Percy," Natasha said sincerely, before noticing that I lifted the sky. "You lifted the sky? I thought you could only lift 200 tons?" "Yes, I lifted the heavens and it's a matter of heart, not strength. I doubt anyone could truly lift it, it would weigh far more than trillions of tons when you factor in the various planets." I replied, to her understanding. "Make no mistake gods and titans are physically strong, and those associated with strength can even lift millions of tons." Here, her eyes widened in shock. "But, back then I could only lift about 30 tons. I've recently grown stronger than my previously stated level of strength." I added that last sentence to cover my bases and be somewhat honest with her. I wasn't ready to completly trust her yet, but wanted to give her some truth and be as honest as possible with her. We arrived in the dining room and I pulled out a chair for her. Receiving an appreciative smile from her, for my gentlemanly behavior. "I wasn't sure what you'd like to drink, but I have a huge wine collection and can use magic to chill it, so feel free to choose anything on the list." I said, gesturing to the list, before retrieving the food and placing it on the table. "You know, these wines are worth millions, right?" Natasha asked in amusement. "I never understood collecting drinks with the intention of never tasting them. So you can still pick out anything you want." I replied, not really caring. I looted them from enemies, including wealthy HYDRA members, and it all meant nothing to me. "The Screaming Eagle Cabernet 1992, then. I wanna see what the big deal about it is." Natasha replied. "I'll go get it." I said, before teleporting to my wine celler and quickly retrieving it, and teleporting right back. I placed her wine of choice in the wine bottle chiller and then rapidly cooled it with my magic. I opened it and poured us both a glass, her first and then began serving us both. "You really know how to treat a girl." Natasha commented with a smile. "I'm a very giving person, and I like showing my dates that it's more than just sex or dating, and that I do actually care for their well being. I met a couple women who had terrible self esteem and they threw themselves at me. I ended up basically giving them therapy by showing them that they deserved better, and nowadays I try making sure my dates get treated right. I've always tried to treat women right, but now I just go the extra mile." I explained, opening up to her some. By this time, I had sat down, and we had both begun to eat. "So your wealthy, attractive, smart, and can cook. How are you still single?" Natasha asked with genuine confusion. "I had some commitment issues and generally avoided pursuing relationships." I replied, causing her to look amused. "That really inspires confidence, doesn't it?" I asked, causing her to lightly laugh. "I thought that I was going to end up married to my last girlfriend, and that we were going to be together forever, and I even believed that Aphrodite intended for me to end up with her. I was wrong. I am fully ready to commit now, so don't worry about that." I finished with a wink. "I'm glad," Natasha commented with a smile. "Why don't you tell me a little about yourself?" I suggested a minute later to Natasha. "Only what you are comfortable sharing, but I will admit to knowing the existence of the now destroyed Red Room and Black Widow Ops Program, their methods, and I won't judge you based on your past." "What do you know about them?" Natasha asked. "A lot, training techniques and practices, some of their Super Soldier creating processes." I said, Super Soldier in a derisive tone. "They abducted a Demi-god and were dealt with, Natasha. It wasn't the Olympians, but maybe knowing that will give you some closure." "Thank you," Natasha said gratefully. "I don't have many memories of my family, but they died during an internal conflict in the mid 1980's, my mother tossed me to safety before she died. A man named Ivan Petrovich caught me and turned me over to the Red Room, he was going to be my foster father, but they denied his request and forced him away. I was raised as an assassin, spy, and a monster. They even sterilized me." "You aren't a monster Natasha; the people who did that to you were. You were a victim who broke free of your tormentors and became a hero. By this point you've saved more lives than you ever took. You did those things because they made you into someone who would do that, but you got a second chance, you took it, and you have done so much good in the world, and have become a different person; a hero." I said passionately, making her smile despite the sad subject. "Thanks, Percy. That's sweet and you are right. I am a better person." Natasha said, sadly, even masterfully preventing herself from crying. "Why don't you tell me about your childhood?" I nodded and began recounting my life to her, all the way up to twelve years old and while omitting my family name, but not lying. "How did you go from such a nice child to becoming a master assassin and soldier?" Natasha asked in confusion, with an undertone of envy for my comparatively great childhood. "I didn't really commit to being an assassin/soldier until I was seventeen, I had more than enough training before then, but I was kind of lazy and wasn't aware that I would eventually stop aging. When I stopped aging, I realized that I needed stuff to do or I would get really bored." I said, before pausing dramatically and making her smile. "I hunted down the surviving members of the Titan and Giant Armies and then slaughtered their former agents that refused to defect pre or post war. I wiped out entire races of monsters during that purge and even killed a few truly evil demi-gods." I noticed that Natasha was still listening and waiting for me to continue. "After that, I vacationed on Olympus and had sex with a couple goddesses, learned magic from Hecate, and then created the Olympian Elite Forces. When I finished setting up the training program and completed the actual training, I moved on to do some mercenary work, and dabbled in investment and other hobbies like tech design or science to keep myself entertained. I continued that until Thor recruited me into the Avengers. I can't really talk about the missions I performed for the Olympians. That would get me sent to the Fields of Punishment if I ever died and hadn't redeemed myself." Natasha seemed to understand my families insistence on secrecy and my refusal to talk about my missions. We finished dinner and I brought out dessert. "Oh your going to spoil me," Natasha said, eyeing it in obvious desire. "That's the point, and you are making me feel kinda jealous right now. Maybe I should get rid of the competition..." I said, before putting the 'Death by Chocolate' cake back up, and causing her to pout playfully. "Oh, I suppose I can tolerate the competition, but we will have to dispose of it, viciously and together." "Yes, and at this rate it might not be the only thing we do together this week." Natasha said, with a wink. "Well, I look forward to both. Even if the second is just possibility." I said, as I cut the cake and placed it onto plates. Natasha took her first bite and moaned sensually, causing a stirring in my pants, and then she winked at me. "Oh, now your just being mean and torturing me." I said, and received a smirk in reply. "Now I have an erection and I'll have to take a cold shower later." She licked the fork sensually. I smirked and began describing what I could do to her with my erection instead...